First, I feel like a fossil. I don’t consider myself to be an old guy, but the majority of other students running around seem to me, at this point, to be aged about twelve. Indeed, I am nearly a decade older than the youngest of them. I remember the first Bush. Heck, I have vague memories of Reagan. They’re all so young and full of life. That’ll pass.

Second, I passed Ed Mondolfi on my way to a class Monday. At the time, I had a little chuckle about it since the two of us graduated high school together. Turns out that he is in my Friday chem lab. We’re totally lab partners. This may or may not turn out to be a good thing.

Third, on Tuesday while waiting to get into my calculus class, Luke Damron passed in the hallway. He didn’t see me so I tapped him on the shoulder and we caught up a little bit. He and I somehow came to very similar realizations. His was that newspapers are a dying industry and that he needs a better job. He is back pursuing a biology degree on the way to med school.

Fourth, I own 100 shares of Journal Register, a dead newspaper stock. It died after I bought it. It shows no signs of coming back to life. I continue to hold on to it. It is quite literally worthless, so selling it would be stupid – the only place you can go from the bottom is up.

Fifth, my brain is rusty. Very rusty. I jumped right into calculus. The last math class I had was statistics and that was in the fall of 1999, so 9 years ago. Prior to that, my last semester of high school was devoid of a math class which puts my last high school math class at the beginning of my senior year. That said, I don’t seem to be any further behind than my classmates who have hopefully had more recent mathematical exercises.

Sixth, if it hadn’t been for Don Rogers, I really wouldn’t be prepared for any of this. The stuff I learned in that class has stuck with me.

That’s all for now, I’m sure there will be more later.